Episode 57 - The Real Role of Segmentation & Personalisation in CRM Marketing

Did someone forward this to you? If so, click to subscribe

📰 Segmentation & Personalisation in CRM Marketing

There’s no shortage of data proving personalisation drives performance. 

McKinsey reports that 71% of customers now expect companies to tailor their experiences. 

But truly this is about utility.

Retention happens when customers achieve their desired outcomes. 

That’s it.

And if your CRM marketing initiatives fail to help them do that - because they’re irrelevant, poorly timed, missing an understanding of the wider context or tone-deaf, they’ll either ignore you or, worse, tune out for good.

Where CRM Marketing Personalisation Often Goes Wrong

There’s a growing obsession with hyper-personalisation. 

But the reality is more personalisation isn’t always better. 

Personalisation only works if it's contextually right.

That means sending the right message at the right time based on the customer’s current experience and relationship with you.

Some quick examples of when CRM Marketing personalisation goes wrong 

• Pushing product offers immediately after a service complaint. 

• Promoting products the customer already owns.

• Sending beginner tutorials to customers already showing advanced behaviour.

CRM Marketing personalisation must be based on a holistic understanding of the entire relationship, to help with that process, this checklist can help you to understand if you have gaps in your CRM Marketing approach:  

✅ Are you promoting products to customers who already own those products? 

✅ Are the majority of offers relevant - not perfect, but not mostly irrelevant?

✅ Is your message cadence aligned with what customers expect?

✅ Do your nudges reflect what the customer has or hasn’t done yet?

✅ Do messages take into account the broader relationship context (e.g. recent support cases or billing issues)?

Often when I start consulting with CRM teams, I find gaps in the above and this is often due to customer data accessibility within in CRM Marketing teams. We will dive further into this in future episodes in this series.   

The Four Dimensions of CRM Personalisation

There are four dimensions of CRM Marketing personalisation: content, timing, channels, and frequency. 

1. Content Personalisation. This goes beyond name fields. You need to align messaging with:

• Segments: Preferences and behaviour. 

• Customer lifestage: Contextual relevance to the customer’s journey.

• Moments of Truth: CRM Marketing that is tied to moments of truth (see episode 56) 

• Inventory fit: Tailored feeds or dynamic content for brands with broad product ranges.

2. Timing Personalisation. The right message at the wrong time is still the wrong message. Use behavioural signals to deliver emails, pushes, and in-app messages when they’ll matter most. But beware: Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) can distort open-time data.

3. Channel Personalisation. If a customer consistently ignores a channel, stop using it for them. Protecting against full-channel opt-out matters more than squeezing out one more click. 

4. Frequency Personalisation. More comms can equal more engagement - but only to a point. Over-message and you risk opt-outs or brand fatigue. Build frequency models that adapt by segment and recent behaviour to strike the right balance.

Final Thoughts

Done right personalisation is the engine that builds trust, and drives CRM Marketing effectiveness at scale. 

But it’s not about being clever. 

It’s about being considerate - about knowing where your customer is in their journey and showing up in the right way at the right time.

Segment and personalise like it matters - because it does.

Until next week, 

Tom

Do you need help with Customer Retention?

When you are ready, contact me to discuss consulting, my fast-track retention accelerator, courses, and training. Or if you are interested in sponsoring this newsletter, get in touch via [email protected]